As a summer beautification project of the city of Durango and the Business Improvement District, the stalks are intended to give the flower barrels some height and beauty, Glasco said.

“It will get pinker as we go through the summer,” Glasco said.

Alysha Carmien, a horticulturist at Durango Nursery and Supply, did not think decorative millet was unusual because there are decorative and nonedible varieties of pears and apples, too. People like the foliage of the plants.

The city’s contractor, Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery in Cortez, selected millet as the upright centerpiece for the flower barrels.

In the lingo of flower decoration, “you need a thriller, a spiller and a filler,” said Suzan Clifford, the perennials manager. “Millet is the thriller.”

It will be up to downtown business sponsors to replace the millet in their barrels should they wilt or become uprooted.

McGee hopes the businesses stick with a crop decoration.

“Cabbage is very decorative; so is asparagus,” McGee said. “I see nothing wrong with it. I think it’s great. Vegetables are a great ornament, I’ve always thought.”